FOOTNOTES:
[1144] They are forbidden by strict theology, but in practice there are exceptions, for instance, the winged figure believed to represent Ahura Mazda, found on Achæmenian reliefs.
[1145] Though the principles of Zoroastrianism sound excellent to Europeans, I cannot discover that ancient Persia was socially or politically superior to India.
[1146] See Strabo, XV. 62. So, too, the Pitakas seem to regard cemeteries as places where ordinary corpses are thrown away rather than buried or burnt. In Dig. Nik. III, the Buddha says that the ancient Sakyas married their sisters. Such marriages are said to have been permitted in Persia.
[1147] "He who returns victorious from discussions with Gaotama the heretic," Farvadin Yasht in S.B.E. XXIII. p. 184. The reference of this passage to Buddhism has been much disputed and I am quite incompetent to express any opinion about it. But who is Gaotama if not the Buddha? It is true that there were many other Gautamas of moderate eminence in India, but would any of them have been known in Persia?
[1148] The inscriptions near the tomb of Darius at Nakshi-Rustam appear to be hortatory like those of Asoka. See Williams Jackson, Persia, p. 298 and references. The use of the Kharoshtri script and of the word dipi has also been noted as indicating connection with Persia.
[1149] Perhaps the marked absence of figures representing the Buddha in the oldest Indian sculptures, which seems to imply that the holiest things must not be represented, is due to Persian sentiment.
[1150] Strictly speaking there is nothing final about Maitreya who is merely the next in an infinite series of Buddhas, but practically his figure has many analogies to Soshyos or Saoshant, the Parsi saviour and renovator of the world.
[1151] See chap. XLI. p. 220.
[1152] See chap, on Mahâyâna, VI.
[1153] A convenient statement of what is known about this cult will be found in Bhandarkar, Vaishnavism and Saivism, part II. chap. XVI.
[1154] Chap. 60. 19. The work probably dates from about 650 A.D.
[1155] Chap. 139. See, for extracts from the text, Aufrecht. Cat. Cod. Sansc. p. 30.
[1156] For Śâkadvîpa see Vishnu, p. II. IV. where it is said that Brahmans are called there Mṛiga or Maga and Kshattriyas Mâgadha. The name clearly means the country of the Śâkas who were regarded as Zoroastrians, whether they were Iranian by race or not. But the topography is imaginary, for in this fanciful geography India is the central continent and Śakadvîpa the sixth, whereas if it means Persia or the countries of the Oxus it ought to be near India.
[1157] The Garuḍa may itself be of Persian provenance, for birds play a considerable part in Persian mythology.
[1158] The Aivyâonghen of the Avesta.
[1159] Watters, vol. II. 254, and Life, chap. IV.
[1160] Târanâtha, tr. Schiefner, p. 128, and Vincent Smith's remarks in Early History, p. 347, note 2.
[1161] See Râjendralâla Mitra, Antiquities of Orissa, vol. n. p. 145. He also quotes the Sâmba Purâna. The temple is said to have been built between 1240 and 1280 but the beauty of its architecture suggests an earlier date.
[1162] 58. 47.
[1163] See Epig. Ind. 72-73.